NFO-69 (AV10476) US Farm Report

[music] Welcome to US Farm Report. These programs are brought to you in the hope of building a better understanding of the problems facing the farmers of this country. And how these problems effect all other segments of this great nation. Today we have with us discussing some of these issues National Farmers Organization President Oren Lee Staley, Organizational Director Lloyd Fairbanks. The members of the NFO in this area are happy to bring this program to the listening audience. These programs are brought to the listening audience through the efforts of the NFO members in this area. They have donated their time, they have donated their money, in order to make this program possible. In order to inform the public about the progress of the NFO, the aims and the objectives. These programs feature many of the department heads in the NFO. You know, it takes more than one individual or more than a few people to make a success of an organization a reality. And, so, consequently the NFO has made more progress than any other organization in all the history of agriculture. The growth of the NFO has been fast, covering a broad area. This has taken the work of many people. Many people who have been willing to make the sacrifice of leaving their farms and their communities to go into other areas and to talk to farmers about their business problems. And so now after just a little over 7 years everyone is recognizing that the NFO has the experience in bargaining has brought into agriculture a new era. Because when we first started orgranizing our collective bargaining program, very few people thought it was practical. Very few people thought it would work. And certainly, no one was talking about bargaining for agriculture. But because of the growth of the NFO. Because of the understanding that the NFO has brought to farmers about the necessity of bargaining. It now is a reality. And by being a reality, I mean, that almost everyone is talking about farmers needing bargaining power. But the NFO has established bargaining power for the American farmer. Really, for the first time. Never before have farmers been able to bargain over a broad area. Never before has there been nationwide bargaining in agriculture on the major commodities in this great agricultural area of the Midwest. And the areas outlying and joining the Midwest agricultural producing area. I have with me today, Lloyd Fairbanks, who is director of the Organizational Department. And farmers must organize first, in order to be effective in bargaining. They cannot and they have not been able to solve their problems and then organize. It's necessary for them to organize and solve their problems. And in order to do this, it has taken the work of many people. It has taken the work and efforts of many people. And, of course, it takes somebody directing the total efforts of all the people. The NFO has many qualified department heads. These department heads that make the NFO are all farmers, because only farmers can be members of the NFO. But in agriculture you have many people that have experience in other fields. You have many people that have excellent educational background in agriculture, that have had experience in other business fields and in almost every walk of life in America. And many of those have returned back to the farm and have come back after this experience because they wanted to go back to living in the rural communities. These people that have had experience in the rest of the business world, these people that have seen what the rest of the economy is really doing and what makes it click, have been some of the most dynamic leaders in the NFO. And now with the fact they've had the experience in other fields, the fact that they have experienced what the rest of the economy is doing, it has made a dynamic organization out of the NFO. And not only has it made a dynamic organization out of the NFO, with people experienced in other fields, working to bring into agriculture their experience in those fields. But also, they have made it possible for many of the farmers to rally around this type of leadership in the NFO. This leadership exists at the county level, at the district level, and at the state level, and at the national level. I'm very proud today to have with me a man who has with the organization since almost its inception. Because he has had some experience in other fields, because he has a desire to see agriculture have stability in the industry. And because he has this desire and experience he has been willing to give his time, he has been willing to give all the effort and energy that he can muster to lead the most important phase of our collective bargaining program. And that phase is to organize because individual farmers operating as individual farmers, trying to market their products as individual farmers - one here, one there, one today, one tomorrow, in each small area of each county. It meant that these farmers, individual farmers, selling to large buyers, buyers that are getting smaller in number, buyers that are getting more powerful economically, that it was necessary to bring these individual farmers into an organization, that could be large enough and powerful enough to meet the buyers of farm commodities on an equal level. And so today I would like to introduce to the listening audience, Lloyd Fairbanks, the national organizational director. Lloyd, I think you might tell them first your age, and, uh, I think this is always important to know something of the background of the people that head the various departments, huh? Lloyd, how old are you now? -Oren Lee, I'm 44. Coming up on 45. Well, time slips by before you know it. Because I know that it doesn't seem too long because of the busy life you've had though, uh, even though you're not old in years, you've had a lot of miles. Because you've covered a lot of territory. Uh, you've had a lot of experience. Lloyd, tell me what, you were a WWII veteran, what did you do in WWII? -Oren Lee, I flew a B24 bomber. In Guam, Okinawa, in the Pacific area. Well, of course, that meant a lot of training, uh, meant a lot of, uh, experience and you had quite an outstanding war record. I also know that before you went to the service, that you had embarked and prepared yourself, embarked on and prepared yourself for a career that would have been a little different than farming. What did you plan to do, Lloyd? Oren Lee, I went to college at Kansas University, at Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. My plans were to be a doctor. And I was working very diligently toward that. One reason why I decided to be a doctor was the fact that I could remember the early 30s, where farmers had a real rough time price wise, as well as drought. My home at that time was in Kansas, up north of Saint Mary's, Kansas, northwest of Topeka about 28 miles. We experienced that extreme drought, low prices, and such I then with stability in agriculture that certainly we should get into something more stable and I figured that the doctoring profession would be that. Well, of course, Lloyd, as I know that you were doing more than just thinking about it because you had passed the test and you had been admitted to medical school, as I understand it, ain't that right? That's right, I got the admission after I had got into the Service, I had already passed my aptitude tests and such before the doctor at KU, university there at Kansas City, the medical school. But basically, what was my great problem was my age was against me and Uncle Sam wanted me in the service. Haha, yes, during those years it was, certainly the time that made men our age, all of us had to take time in the service in the defense of our country. And, of course, I know that most of the people in the NFO, including myself, spent time in the Service, during WWII. And, we as, we were doing our part in the defense the liberties and the freedoms of our country and free enterprise. I know that we take just as seriously now the freedom of a type of an agriculture that we have in family, type agriculture. And of course, when you came back from the service, and the desire to be back on the farm, as you told me many times, is possibly the biggest mistake you made. When you decided that instead of returning which you could have done do because you had already been admitted, that you decided that instead of going on and being a doctor, you would come back and farm. Yes, that's right. My father had a 323 acre operation there. And, of course, I also about that time was thinking about getting married. It was kinda hard at that time to be married and go through medical school. And so I decided to go back to the farm, which I always had a desire to operate a farm. But Let's say without the stability back in the service, guess I kinda forgot about that, Oren Lee, while I was in the service. And kinda wanted get back to the farm again. Well, Lloyd, I think we should get down, so the listening audience knows, the part that you have played, it has been a very significant part, because, as I stated, before farmers must organize, before they can bargain collectively, it took a dynamic leader, the head of the organizational department, which you have been. And you've headed the organizational department for many many years. I know that you were at the first meeting when the collective bargaining membership agreement was signed.And where a handful of farmers, no one but farmers were there, decided to start on a collective bargaining program. And shortly after that you became organizational director. And you've seen the organization start with a handful of farmers and build it to the most powerful, many times that power of bargaining has ever been established before in agriculture. Lloyd, tell us a little about that growth. Oren Lee, the first winters of our organizing period were very hard to get farmers to leave the farm, to organize. And, of course, we also decided to have all farmers as organizers because the fact we felt like their heart was in it. And that they would follow through with the determination needed in order to effectuate bargaining here in agriculture. And, of course, year after year, we work to our plan. Continuing to expand our organization, county by county, as we went along. Adding to our staff as we progressed and as we could get more farmers to realize they had to get in and do their get, in order to get this job done, to get it done in time. And so, as we progressed on, by now, then we've moved over into 25 states, which I have a map here that I'd like to point out to ya'. Just a little as to what we're organizing at this time. We start from the Canadian line here and come clear on down to Oklahoma on over here to the Alabama line, then we jump over into Georgia and down into Florida. Then we start over here in the New York area from across New York clear on over across all this Midwest states here, county by county- we don't leave out any counties as we organize. And now then we also we're over here into the Magic Valley of Idaho. We have a little area in here that's skipped in here. But basically, we're out here in this great bread basket here of the United States, here. Where the food is produced. Now we're content to expand our organizing network as we go along, county by county. State by state. And we anticipate opening more states as time goes on. We've had many requests to come into other states. But we want to be sure that we do a good job in the area that we're in, concentrating there and building that production, basically the 75% of the hog production within the Midwest here in the 10 states, about 75% of the soy beans in about 5 of 'em there. And most of the fed cattle within that area And then, basically the agriculture production there that we need to get together to bargain together and to ought act as one in our bargaining efforts. You all know when you got your concentration of bargaining power together greater than that of the buyers while they can do something with your production. Lloyd, that point you brought out is still significant because when you talk about this great are that is covered by the NFO, the 25 state area that we're organized in, it means that some of the companies that buy products from farmers, cover that large area also. So it means that unless you also have farmers that are joined together for the purpose of bargaining together and selling together over that same area that you cannot be effective in bargaining unless you do cover that area. And unless they're all under the same bargaining effort. So a member that has joined as a farmer in Pennsylvania or New York has added his bargaining power to the farmer in Iowa or Illinois adjoined. In other words, their production is all brought together under the NFO collective bargaining program. As the same for the farmer in North Dakota or Florida, or in Wisconsin or Minnesota. So this means that all of them have brought their bargaining power together and this is so significant. But, Lloyd, in order to do this, in order for them to be able to bargain together, they had to have a structure, didn't they? And in order for them to have a structure, they had to all join the same organization and in order to be effective in bargaining, you had to have some things that were spelled out to the members so they would know their rights at the same time, give enough strength to the over all organization and protect their rights at the same time. But to give enough strength to the overall organization so that this bargaining could be done in an effective basis. And so this production could be bargained for together. And so, what was- what have the farmers that have joined the NFO, what has been their first step, Lloyd? Well, the first step, Oren Lee, of course, is to organize. But they must organize under a legal structure. And that legal structure must fall under the Capper-Volstad Act. Giving us an exemption here from the Clayton Act or the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. And that was the membership agreement, that we here in NFO have drawn up and each and every member signs this membership agreement, joining his production together with his other farmer friends out here in the area, so that we can bargain as one. Now this membership agreement is very simple. It really has three basic points in it. One that- number one is and that's the authorization where each and every farmer authorizes the NFO to be his bargaining agent for all commodities that he produces on his farm. Now the reason for this is, all your commodities because if we were working just with one commodity it would raise the price of just one commodity alone. Then certainly it would get out of balance in production. So we expect to raise all the prices in a general level together here, as time goes on. And number two, number two, that he's free to sell as he chooses until such time as a contract is consummated with a processor. Now certainly, we would like very well, and it's to his advantage, in order to market with us in our marketing programs here, whichever it may be, whether it's in dairy, grain, or meat. But, certainly, he's free to do as he chooses, until such time that this contract is consummated with the processor. Now, the third, third point is this. It's a three year agreement. And he is bound to by or to pay 25$ a year for each of the three years that the agreement is written for. And after we consummated contracts with the processors only 1% takes over. And he no longer pays the 25$ a year, dues and fees. And the 1%, even though is only a small part of his production that was under a master contract and consummated with a processor, that would pay his dues and fees at that time. Lloyd, those points you have brought out are so important, because there has been many times a misunderstanding of our membership agreement. First, somebody said, 'well, 25$a year that's a big fee.' Well, of course, this is a small amount of money to try to protect and is now successfully protecting the investment that farmers have. And then the 1% will be the smallest marketing charge that they have ever paid. But the fine thing about it and the important thing about it, ladies and gentlemen, is, that really, the members of this organization control the organization. Because, as Lloyd stated, that they are free to market as they choose until such time as a contract is consummated with a processor. The only way that contracts can be consummated with processor or processors is by a 2/3rds vote approval of the members of effected, attending meetings of which they've been given a ten-day written notice, giving date, time, place and purpose of the meeting. In other words, the farmers that join the NFO are really saying we want our production to be bargained for with other farmers, we want to be able to bargain together with our neighbors and farmers over the entire agricultural area. Certainly, with this protection, and I don't see how there could be anymore protection, and still have an effective bargaining job. Then by keeping the final decision by a 2/3rds vote approval of the members. Because you'll never get 2/3rds of the farmers, Lloyd, in any area, to vote to bind themselves to market together, until they're certain of the price they're going to get, until they're certain where they're going to have to market, that they know all the marketing conditions, under which they are to deliver their product. And so I don't see how you can have a fairer program, I don't see how you could have a program that protects the individual rights of the farmers more than this and still be effective. And so, consequently, this is the reason, that the NFO program has really moved out and has really progressed. Because farmers ought to sit down and understand the functioning of this organization and the NFO's collective bargaining program. Realize, that it is fair. That it is legal and that it is effective. And I think these points are so important. Lloyd, I know that we all realize that the, that the reason the NFO has made its progress, the reason that this spectacular progress has been made in organizing, and now in bargaining, has been because of the dedicated work of our members. The members that were willing to volunteer, spend their own money, talk to their neighbor, to convince their neighbors that they should all do something about their problem. But I do know that you have also a vast organizational structure, which is necessary in order to tie this volunteer work together, this working of farmers together. Tell us something about your structure, Lloyd. Oren Lee, we have a organizational structure here, of course, of assistant national organizational directors, each one of them run over 5 counties or more. Basically, 5 counties over this entire 25 state area that we're working here. And, of course, those fellas are given some expenses here, to leave their farms- so they must leave their farm, in order to go organize. They must work a full week. Some of them are gone as much as two weeks at a time, get to come home only at that time. With their wives and and hired men taking care of the farming operation. Certainly, of course, there isn't enough money in Knox Treasury to organize farmers if you had to pay for 'em. But we do have a voluntary program here that we use as a saturated membership drive. That we're been operating this winter and we expect to contact over a million and a half farmers with this program, Oren Lee. And that's a voluntary program. And I'd say that the farmers today, members or non-members alike, today see the necessity of a program like this. And their enthusiasm and determination, in order to make this program work, is the highest it's been now for 7 years. Yes, Lloyd, there's no question that what the image of the NFO has greatly improved. And I would say that the image has improved only because there is a better understanding. A betting understanding of what we set out to do. Better understanding of our accomplishments. And now a realization. That we have the experience in the NFO, in bargaining, with the nation's largest processors of dairy, grain, and meat. And I mean the major processors and handlers in each of these commodities. People now realize that this experience is beginning to pay off. It's having its effect. But it has always been amazing to me, really. Why farmers have to get interested first, then study the collective bargaining program. This I'm sure that everyone realizes is necessary and is as it should be. But the part that has always amazed me is why is it that NFO members have to go out and convince their neighbors that they should also be interested in doing something about the pricing of our products. It seems to me, at least now, Lloyd, that many of the non-members should come to the NFO members and ask them- what what is being done? I don't believe that members now should have to go out as they have in the past and talk to the non-members because it's evident that we are making great progress. And it's progress that is benefitting all farmers of course, we're always trying to do a little better job for our members through our bargaining efforts but, we're also having an effect on the general price level. This has always, to me, seemed to be a lack of interest of the part of so many farmers and their own welfare, but we're proud of the progress we've made because of so many farmers that had been willing to go out and talk to their neighbors. Oren Lee, we're finding that many of the non-members are coming to our members and asking to join. I'm getting reports of this at various places in the counties. Others have asked why haven't you come to see us sooner? Some of them are coming to our collection points on our meet and asking to join and such. And the general attitude is much better in that respect. And I think that they already see, many of the non-members already see the progress NFO's made. There's no mistaking about the fact that we have raised the general price of a lot of commodities. And they're given us credit for that and they want to join an organization that's out trying to do something for the farmers. Well, I think this is right, Lloyd. There's been so much misunderstanding. So many rumors that have been spread about NFO. And, of course, we expected this in the beginning, because we knew that we were going to be doing things that in marketing that had never been done, that many people had been living off of the farmers and that these people would fight very hard and they have. But now the image of the NFO, the true image is coming through. And I think that I should point out, here, in conclusion, to remind the farmers, the real success we are having in bargaining, in dairy, grain, and meat. Because I hear it said many times 'well, what has NFO really done?' I think this is obvious now. As our members are selling their livestock in new marketing patterns and non-members see that our members are going to different points to deliver their products. This means cattle and hogs. And they know that most of the time our members are netting more dollars. But they also have been wondering what has really happened to the hog price, for example. And I have here, with me here, I thought this was something I should do, is go back and look at what people were saying last February and March about the market for hogs doing the next 12 months. And I went back to the Iowa Farm Letter, which was the Iowa, the outlook letter. And it comes from the co-operative extension service. The Iowa State University has many letters that are published like this. And this is a April 2nd issue and March 31st issue. I had about the same thing to say that there would be a expected reduction of 8-9% on hogs, but they also predicted the price. And that price was going to be $19 average top in August in the state of Iowa for hogs. And they was going to follow with a 16 and a half dollar a hundred weight price in November. So there had to be new marketing factors. These new marketing factors simply were the NFO members were taking a large volume of production under meat marketing arrangements out of many areas. The remaining buyers had to compete vigorously. It brought new competition into buying. We're now doing the same thing on grain. We're moving on dairy. And a marketing agency in common structure that we have recommended is being set up. This means more dairy farmers will have the opportunity to see their production bargained for nation wide. Farmers may have disagreed with our methods, our strategy in the past, but they can't disagree with our new and additional methods. Of bargaining together and marketing together. [music] Anything short of fair farm prices brings about dangerous excessive debt expansion that mortgages the future of our nation. The members of the National Farmers Organization are calling on the rest of the American farmers to join with them in an all out effort to correct this under payment to agriculture and help build a stronger America. Remember- farmers who know, join the NFO. Until next week at the same time, thank you for watching. [music]